the Parish of St thomas' Brampton, Chesterfield

St Thomas' Brampton and St Peter's Holymoorside, Chesterfield

Rector's Letter February 1984-January 1985

Our vision statement: Sharing the love of Jesus

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The Rector's letter is printed in each edition of the Church Magazine

February/March 1984	April/May 1984	June/July 1984
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February/March 1984

As many of my readers will know, I served in the Royal Engineers during the war.

One of the jobs for which I was trained was bridge building. We used that marvellous invention, the Bailey bridge. It consisted of steel panels which were joined together end to end on the ground. A span about twice as long as the width of the gap to be bridged was constructed, and then the whole massive structure was pushed out carefully on rollers over the gap until the front end reached the far bank. Unless, of course, someone had miscalculated - as happened on one memorable occasion. The soldiers were pushing the bridge out and the end had nearly reached the far bank - but not quite. The man in charge didn't notice in time that the bridge had reached its point of balance; and when he shouted the order to hold back it was too late. With gathering speed the structure took a nose dive, and twenty tons of steel crashed into the gap.

We clambered down into the hollow (it was a dry gap, not a river) to survey the damage, feeling utterly demoralized. What on earth were we to do? It was at that moment, when our morale was at rock bottom, that the Commanding Officer appeared. He stood at the edge of the gap surveying the scene. We waited for sentence to be pronounced. He spoke just two words: 'Rather irregular!' Then he whipped off his Sam Browne and tunic, donned a pair of borrowed denim overalls, and jumped down into the gap. Without a word of recrimination he began to lead us in the task of recovery, working as hard as any sapper. His presence with us transformed the situation. Our morale was restored. Together we laboured cheerfully until the task was done.

That officer, whose name (if I ever knew it) is long forgotten, stands out in my memory as a great man. A lesser man would have stood on his dignity. This officer showed how big a man he was by his willingness to set aside his dignity and to identify with his men in their distress.

But there is another reason why I remember him; his action is a striking analogy of the self-abasement of God when he came into the world in Jesus. Here is a model of Christmas. St. Paul puts it well in his letter to the Philippians:
He who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God's equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man.

Christmas means that God is not just 'way up there', remote and condemning; he is here with us, saving. 'God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him'. Christmas' shows us God in his shirt sleeves. Whatever hole we're in, God is right there with us in the hole, saying, 'How can we, together, redeem this situation and bring something really good out of it?'

The Christian God is pre-eminently the God whose nature is to save. Often he has been misrepresented, even in the Church, as a censorious God obsessed by rules and regulations, whose nature is to condemn. But he will not have it; and if we would find Him it must be in Jesus whose very name means saviour. There are two areas in which the Church is seeking to bear witness to the saving activity of God at the present time.

The first is the ministry of healing.
During the last 50 years there has been a great resurgence of interest in the Church's ministry of healing. I myself was first introduced to this ministry 30 years ago by Father Jim Wilson. This ministry has been exercised for many years at Chesterfield Parish Church; and in our own parish there is a small group of people, now affiliated to the Guild of Health, who seek to pray for the sick.

Yet this ministry is widely misunderstood and often confused with other systems of 'alternative medicine'. In order to discover more about the nature of this subject and to promote the ministry of healing in this district, a meeting has been arranged at St. Thomas' meeting room on Wednesday, February 8th at 10.30 a.m., when the speaker will be Julian Drewett, chairman of the Guild of Health. All are invited.

A second area in which the Church seeks to bear witness to the saving activity of God is marriage breakdown.
In the past, the Church of England's attitude to marriage breakdown has often been less than sympathetic, if not censorious; and its attitude to the marriage of divorced persons has been unconstructive and even hypocritical. The Anglican Church has consistently refused in any circumstances to marry in Church anyone whose previous marriage has ended in divorce. In matters matrimonial, the Church of England has offered a judgmental God.

At last, however, there is a sign of change. Some time ago the General Synod, the Church's ruling body, decided in principle that the marriage of divorced persons in Church should, in some cases, be permitted. The actual procedure by which this should be done is proving much more difficult to work out, and there is much disagreement within the Church about the matter. But a new dispensation has begun; and the Church is at last shaking itself free from legalism to bear witness to a saving God who offers forgiveness to those who have failed and who can bring newness of life out of the hell of divorce.

Gill and I want to thank very such all those kind readers who sent us Christmas cards. We are sorry that we have not been able to reply to everyone individually, and hope that you will accept this acknowledgment.

Vyvyan Watts-Jones

From the February 1984 edition of the magazine

April/May 1984

Resurrection
As I look out of the study window I see intimations of new life. The slender branches of the weeping willow are noticeably turning a yellow-green colour; and the daffodils are thrusting up strongly with the promise that in a very few weeks they will delight us with a riot of colour which is, for me, the definitive sign that the annual miracle which we call spring has come again.

The Easter Hope
For Christians spring has a special significance: it speaks to us of Easter. In the renewal of nature after the death of winter we see a sacrament of God's dealing with the whole of creation. Christians believe that the One who was uniquely the Son of God yielded his life for love of humanity. On Good Friday, Jesus was crucified, died and was buried. But God raised him from the dead; and by his resurrection he has (in the words of the New Testament) "abolished death and brought life and immortality to life".

Christian believe that through Jesus and his Resurrection we too have the promise of eternal life. "Because I live you shall live also", says Jesus in St. John's gospel. That is the Easter hope to which Christians hold fast - a hope that needs to be proclaimed more clearly in this age in which many people have lost their religious belief. It is a remarkable thing that today so many people claim not to believe in God or insist that 'you can be a Christian without the church', yet promptly turn to the church at the tine of a death.

Survival or resurrection
But what do we mean when we say that we believe in life after death? We could mean one of two things.

We could mean that the soul is of such a nature that it survives the death of the body. That is a belief which in itself has nothing to do with religion. It can be the subject of investigation by the Society for Psychical Research, and, no doubt, by the newly appointed Professor of Para psychology at Edinburgh University.

But when Christians speak of life after death they mean something much more than this. They believe not just in the survival of death but in resurrection from death to life: not life in spite of death, but life resulting from death - the 'death' of yielding up one's life to the love of God. We grow by being loved; and as we surrender our lives into the unclouded love of God we become our true selves: we become all that God designed us to be.

The Body
In the Christian creeds which we say in church, we affirm this belief in the clause, "I believe in the resurrection of the body", and this has puzzled many people. Certainly the New Testament does not expect that in the next life we shall be disembodied spirits; but it is equally certain that our present bodies of flesh and blood are not the ones which we shall inhabit in our new existence.

When we die these old bodies are of no more use to us and are discarded. This understanding leads us to some important conclusions. Firstly we need have no qualms about cremation. Secondly we need have no qualms about letting our organs be used after death. This issue is becoming more important with every new step forward in transplant surgery.

Thousands of people live under sentence of death or permanent disability because there are not enough donors of the organs needed. No doubt this is partly due to people's slowness to res¬pond to appeals. But it is also probably true that people have an emotional reluctance, a residual subconscious fear of mutilation after death. As Christians we should surely rejoice to make this contribution to the welfare of our fellow human beings. I suspect that I myself have suffered from an emotional hang-up, because I have not yet signed and organ donor card. I intend to celebrate Easter by putting this right and invite readers to join me. I shall arrange for donor cards to be available at out churches.

Vyvyan Watts-Jones

From the April 1984 edition of the magazine

June/July 1984

At the time of writing the miner's has been going on for nearly two months. Already the railmen and the steelworkers are becoming implicated; and as time goes on, others will undoubtedly be sucked into the vortex. No strike is a good strike; but this one is particularly sad because unionist is in conflict with fellow unionist, violence is increasing, and the police are bearing the brunt of the battle.

What has the Church to say in this situation? Some people would say - nothing. This is a political matter, and the church should keep out of politics. Mr John Butcher M.P. procaimed a few months ago that clergy should give up commenting on political matters for Lent and concentrate on their real job which, he considered, was 'saving souls amd filling their churches'. Mr Enoch Powell, with his usual razor-sharp logic, has slashed the Archbishop of York for supporting the Durham miners in their attitude to pit closures, maintaining that the Archbishop was not qualified to comment on this subject and should therefore keep his mouth shut.

Of course individual clergy should not speak about matters which they do not understand. But the proposition that the church should keep out of politics cannot be accepted by a community whose source-book is the Bible. The great Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament were in no doubt that a right relationship with God was associated with social justice as well as personal integrity. Their outspoken denunciation of those who exploited the poor, or who denied them decent housing by buying up property to make mansions for themselves inevitably involved them in political conflict.

True worship of the God who is revealed in the Bible leads to concern for social issues; and that inevitably leads to political involvement. Whenever the Christian church has been alive it has been concerned about social evils and therefore concerned to change the conditions which have brought about those evils. A century and a half ago, William Wilberforce was deeply concerned about the evils of slavery. He could not be content to alleviate the slaves' suffering: he had to abolish the institution of slavery; and that involved a long political fight.

"The church", Archbishop William Temple once said, " is the only human institution which exists for the benefit of those who are not its members", In the purpose of God the church is only a means to an end; to bring the whole world into conformity with his will. Jesus said, 'I have come that they may have life and have it in all its fulness'. The clergyman's function is not ultimately 'to save souls and fill his church' but to lead people inside the church or outside it into fulness of life.

We used to have a notice outside St. Thomas' which read 'Your need - out concern'. The church's concern is the world. The most important issue in this country at the moment at the present time is the miners' strike; and so the miners' strike must be at the top of the church's agenda.

So what is the church to say? It is true that ill-informed clergy should not make critical statements; it is also true that wise comment must be made from a Christian point of view by those members of the church who are competent to do so. But the local minister has a duty to point out some of the issues that should be of concern to Christians. To put it another way: how should we pray about this industrial conflict?

First and foremost we are not to condemn. Jesus said that he had come not to condemn but to save. As individual citizens we shall all have our own opinions about the rights and wrongs of the situation. As a church our function is to help redeem the situation - by our prayer and actions to bring love to bear on all who are involved. We must remember the miners and their families. Most of them are not in this predicament through their own deliberate choice; and many are not only very hard up but also experiencing deep personal problems. Especially we need we need to be concerned about those miners and their families in villages where the pit is to close and where there is no other employment.

Next, our concern should be for the police. We have the best police force in the world. With a very few exceptions, the police are neither corrupt or violent; and they are unarmed. We should do all in our power to keep it that way. In Britain the policeman is still the citizen's ally - how long can he remain so? There is a grave danger that present events will change the attitude of policemen and the character of the police force.

Finally we must pray for the leaders on each side in this conflict, Ian McGregor and Arthur Scargill; the one determined to create a profitable coal industry, the other seeking to preserve the miners' jobs. Neither is a saint. Each speaks and acts from a mixture of motives. Christians must pray for some measure of reconciliation between them, without which our whole nation will suffer irreparable harm.

Vyvyan Watts-Jones

From the June 1984 edition of the magazine

August/September 1984

This month we have to announce a double change in the church's ministry in this parish.

The Reverend Barry North, our curate, has accepted a curacy in our neighbouring parish of SS Augustine, and will have started work there by the time this is in print.

I shall be leaving the parish in October.

Barry North came to us in 1982 from theological College in Cambridge. During the two years that he has been with us he has contributed much to the life of the parish. Many young people have valued his support and counsel; and I know how many who have been involved in funerals conducted by Barry have appreciated his care. For the past year he has had special responsibility for St John's Church at Walton, where his departure will leave a gap which is going to be difficult to fill. Barry has brought many skills to the parish, one of which has been apparent in the design and lay-out of this magazine. We wish him every success in his new work 'over the border'.

I have been ordained 35 years, and have now been in this parish for ten very happy years. Until three years ago, I took it for granted that I would remain here until retirement. Over the last three years, however, I have had some health problems; and, although I had no desire to go, I have had cause to consider whether it was right to make a move to lighter work.

But that is easier said than done. There are very few lighter jobs left in the Church of England; and there seemed little sense in leaving a parish where I had the support of fellow clergy and an active laity in order to move to a country place where I might have to work several linked parishes single handed, with little lay assistance.

Recent events, however, have caused me to think again. The departure of the younger curate meant that my job here would be even more demanding; and I began to ask the question, 'Setting aside my own needs and preferences, what is best for the parish in the present situation?' As I reflected on this question, it became clear that a younger and fitter man was needed to take advantage of all the many opportunities which are opening up here. I have therefore decided that it is right for me to leave.

So what happens next? Representatives-of the Parochial Church Council may now meet the Bishop and discuss with him the sort of man they would like to be their next Rector. The Bishop, who is patron of this living, will take into account the P.C.C.'s wishes as he looks around for a suitable man. When he thinks he has found one, he will invite him to visit the parish. The man invited will then come and 'case the joint' and try to 'sus out' the information he wants.

If after doing that he decides the place is not for him, another man will have to be found to go through the same procedure. If he accepts, habemus papam! White smoke from the .churchwar¬den's chimney! The parish has a new rector. And we all sincerely hope that that will happen without the inordinate delay that some parishes have experienced.

This is to assume that there is a clergyman who will be available to come to St. Thomas', Brampton. But why should we make this assumption? I once knew of an old priest who had a good reply to people who complained about their clergy. He would say quietly, 'yes, I know that the clergy aren't all they might be. But then, you see, we only have the laity to choose them from. If priests are to be available to the church at large, laymen from individual churches must offer themselves for ordination.

In my last parish we were producing on average one ordination candidate per year. Can anybody remember when we last produced an ordination candidate at St. Thomas'? Well, there has almost been. one - I say almost, because Ian Pallets, who was ordained on July 1st this year to serve in the parish of Halesowen, lived in-the parish for a few years in the 70's and dates his Christian conversion to his time here. But he is the only one I know about.

If we in this very well-favoured parish are not producing ordained men for the church, why on earth should we expect some other parish to provide a clergyman for us? Perhaps this is a time when we need to pray earnestly for more vocations to the church's Ministry. And there may be some¬one reading this who needs to ask himself (or herself, because there is a ministry of women too), 'Why should I not offer myself for ordination?'

Vyvyan Watts-Jones

From the August 1984 edition of the magazine

October/November 1984

Vyvyan Watts-Jones' last letter as Rector

This is my last contribution to Spearhead. Gill and I leave the parish at the end of October. We shall take our leave of our friends in the church at a Eucharist on Monday, 29th October, at 7.30pm. in St. Thomas'.

I have always maintained that a clergyman should not normally remain in a parish for more than ten years. Some twenty years ago the Church of England set up a Commission under the then Vicar of Leeds, Canon Fenton Morley, to enquire into the whole subject of appointment to parishes. The result was a fine report, which came to be known as the 'Morley Report'; covering every aspect of the subject. Needless to say, like many another report in the Church of England, it was thrown out. One of its recommendations was that clergy should be appointed to parishes for seven years, with a possible extension to ten years if this seemed right.

I believe that that was wise counsel. No clergyman is the complete all-rounder. Everyone has his weaknesses and his prejudices, which have their effect on the life of the parish. No parish should be shut up indefinitely with the limitations of one minister. When I had been in my last parish ten years I resigned the appointment to take a years' sabbatical leave. Although I consider that I would have been justified in extending my stay here for another three years, until the official retire¬ment age of 65, circumstances have indicated that it is advisable that I withdraw now, after ten happy and eventful years in the parish.

As many of our readers will know, for many years now my wife Gill and I have worked in partnership. Gill is a fully trained minister (though not ordained). She has had her own areas of ministry in the church and has made a contribution to the life of the church that any assistant priest would find it difficult to match. In addition to her church work she has done much in the field of bereavement counselling, particularly in connection with St. Luke's nursing home, and in connection with the probation service.

Gill and I have always seen our ministries as complementary, the gifts of one making good the weakness of the other. In this respect we have been a microcosm of the whole church which is a body made up of many limbs and organs each with their separate and vital function. But not everybody has seen our partnership in this way. Some have interpreted it as an example of an ailing and incompetent Rector abdicating responsibility in favour of his. domineering and equally incompetent wife. Each member of the church will see us as he wants to see us; and we are content that it should be so.

Now we are on our way. Although I am technically retiring. I am not going to be idle. It has not been possible to find a paid job. The church of England intones pious words about the special contribution which older men can offer, and about the need to relieve them of the burden of heavy administrative work; but it has not devised a way to create openings for them. I have therefore accepted an offer from a Kent Vicar to become his unpaid assistant in return for accomodation in the cottage which was orginally provided for the coachman (or the gardener - I am not sure which). There we hope to be able to contribute something useful to the life of the church. We shall be living just ten miles from the Royal Festival Hal and that is quite an attractive thought.

Thank you for allowing us the privilege of serving you during the last ten years.

Vyvyan Watts-Jones

From the October 1984 edition of the magazine

December 1984/January 1985

Caretaker's Letter -Ken Scott writes during the Vacancy

With this issue of "Spearhead" 1984 will have finished its weary course, and although the horrors portrayed in George Orwell's '1984' have not come upon us - God be thanked - it has been a very troubled 336 days.

There is unemployment, there are still two very damaging Strikes (the other one, in case you are wondering, affects anyone who has to draw family allowance, retirement or disability pension or any other government hand-out); new or continuing wars in many parts on the world, and starvation of a massive scale in Africa.

There have been many good things happening of course, but in general we won't hear of them. Reporters, whether they work for newspapers, radio or television are rather like Mr. Wardle's Fat Boy in "Pickwick Papers" want to make our flesh creep.

I made a vow when it started that I should make no comment about the Miners' Strike. This was fairly easy - nobody asked my opinion anyway. I will only say that anyone who, to further his own political or commercial interests, brings about the amount of misery and hate that has been the result of this strike, is not worthy of holding any high office in either union or management.

Michael Buerk's programme about the famine in Ethiopia has touched the consciences of the nation. This is not a disaster confined to 1984 or indeed to Ethiopia. Christian- Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children Fund and many others have been telling us of famine, from the Horn of Africa across all the countries of Central Africa almost to the West coast, and asking for our help. The help is now forthcoming and there have been many generous gestures, but I suspect that the countries at present in difficulty will require our help for a very long time before they are able to stand on their own feet.

We as a congregation have lost our Rector though this is not -a catastrophe on the scale of the Miners' strike or famine in Ethiopia. But just as the miners' strike is an opportunity for management to reflect on the wisdom of making rash statements before consulting those who work for them: and for the Union ruling body to confine itself to co-operation with management for the good of the industry they both serve; and the famine in Africa an opportunity for all countries to co-operate in order to mitigate the affects of any climatic or other mishap which may lead to starvation; so, in a lesser way the interregnum is an opportunity for the people of St Thomas', St. Peter's and St. John's to show (as demonstrated at the last P.C.C.) that they are prepared to be the People of God in this place. It is an opportunity to care for the sick, comfort the dying and the bereaved, to nurture the children in the faith.

We shall make mistakes, but provided we are prepared to listen and take advice, we may not go far wrong.

God's Blessing on you all this Christmastide and for the whole of 1985.

Ken Scott

From the December 1984 edition of the magazine

Rector's Letters 1985